The first steps of learning to play a musical instrument typically focus on acquiring the basic coordination, knowledge and skills needed for playing simple melodies. For most people, these steps involve numerous hours of technical unrewarding exercises, even more so for children that lack many of the motor skills adults have. Moreover, children find it difficult to concentrate on, what they refer to as boring, routine exercises. The main challenges of music teachers, in addition to teaching the musical knowhow, include the building of positive motivation, stamina, and a balanced process of cognitive development among young players. Not surprisingly, many beginners avoid practicing and eventually stop playing altogether if not regularly encouraged by their surroundings.
On the other hand, it has been proven that people are highly motivated when it comes to playing games. Professional literature presents an abundant number of examples of how games can assist in formal education, such as in schools, and in informal education. The challenge that parents, as well as educators, normally face is to focus children on games and tasks with educational benefit and to limit their interaction with time-consuming games of questionable advantages.
There are numerous examples of popular games drawing millions of children across the world. One noteworthy example is “Guitar Hero” (for PlayStation®, Wii®, and other gaming controllers stations). In this game, the user uses a plastic guitar-shaped controller to hit targets on the screen. Though evidently enjoyable and addictive, there is little to be gained in this game in terms of playing a real guitar.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.